A HEALING HOUR ON LAKE BALBOA

On Sunday I got to take the bandage off my hand and see my stitches for the first time. They were a lot smaller than I expected. Here are some photos I took on Tuesday of both my hands - the bruise on the left hand is from the IV. I have way worse bruising from the IV than from surgery! Weird. What's also strange is that my IV bruise didn't appear until Monday - three days after surgery.

While I was recuperating on Sunday, my friend (and photographer) Jack Slomovits dropped by and whisked me over to Lake Balboa in his Ford Mustang convertible. I took this photo of the Mustang back in December while Jack and I visited Joshua Tree.

Even though I go to Lake Balboa often to walk around the park and watch the birds, I haven't ever gone out on one of their Paddle Wheeler boats. Jack and I rented one for an hour and cruised onto the Lake. After going through surgery and recovery over the weekend, it was very restorative to be out on the lake with the sun and breeze hitting me.









These are some baby ducks - a rare sight on the Lake.



This is my favorite duck at Lake Balboa. He's a gives true meaning to the term "odd duck." He always gets picked on by the other ducks (I guess for being different) but he trudges on like nothing happened. Besides his hair, he just acts a little "off." He's a "rare bird" indeed.

These are some photos I've taken of him in the past.


And this duck just showed up recently - he's the other odd man out at the Lake. I asked one of the Lifeguards about him and they told me he's a Moscovy duck. The first image I took of him on another day at the Lake, the other two are from Sunday.



I saw this ice cream truck as we were leaving. I didn't buy anything from it, but I thought compositionally the truck looked cool with the arrow.

DAY AFTER SURGERY

My hand surgery went well yesterday. The doctors, nurses, and staff were very surprised that I decided to forgo anesthesia and just do local (novocaine) for my hand surgery. It's pretty cool to be called "brave" by the staff at Kaiser. I figured that I've had pretty invasive dental work done while awake using just novocaine so why not just do that for my hand. I mean having a dentist come at your face and mouth with sharp instruments while awake seems a lot worse to me than having my hand cut apart when I can't even see what's happening. I was actually more freaked out about getting the I.V. put into my hand than concerned about the surgery. I think I had my blood pressure checked about 10 times yesterday and man that hurt like hell! Where's the anesthetic for that!?! The only painful parts of surgery were the really tight tourniquet that they put on my arm and some shots the doctor gave me after the incision that was some kind of medicine to help heal the wound. The shots burned and I actually winced and said ow out loud. But the pain was only for a few seconds so I could deal with it. My hand surgery (actually an orthopedic specialist), Dr. Randall Ryan, is one of the nicest doctors you could ever have and good looking to boot! In the past, Dr. Ryan has given me shots of cortisone in my right knee (for pain associated with torn cartilage), plus cortisone in both my hands when I developed really bad tendonitis about 5 years ago. Although Kaiser can be a bitch while waiting for appointments (2 months wait to see Dr. Ryan!), my overall staff experiences have been really good. In the past I received excellent physical therapy for my knee (so good that I walk without pain and even hike!) and months of physical therapy I received for the debilitating tendonitis in my hands that actually got me back on the road to recovery. All the nurses I encountered yesterday in pre and post-op were really nice and caring too. I actually got in a half hour early for surgery - how amazing is that. The entire surgery lasted about 15 minutes and novocaine numbness lasted in my hand all day and night. I kept waiting for the numbness to stop and the pain to start but when I went to bed about 12 hours after surgery, my hand was STILL numb. One of my best friends, Sheryl, was super cool to pick me up from the hospital (my Dad was just too intimidated by the quagmire of buildings at Kaiser to attempt doing pick up). She came into the recovery room and we both laughed at my fashionable attire (a hospital gown with the oh so convenient open back end!) and the gourmet food (jello of course!). She took me to Jerry's Deli afterwards so I could eat my first meal of the day - the fried matzo comfort food I was craving. What was really weird was that my two hands had totally different temperatures. My left hand that had not gone through surgery was normal and cool while my right fingertips were hot as hell. While I probably should have rested for the day, I wanted to get to a mini photographer's party at Aline Smithson's house. These intimate gatherings are so rare, it's such a great opportunity to get to visit with friends, and Aline's house is so freaking amazing, that even surgery couldn't keep me from it. Sheryl did one more driver duty and picked me up and took me to the party and Leba Marquez from my Photography Now group show was nice enough to take me home. Come on, who can resist going to a party with their hand wrapped up in two inches of gauze and bandages - what a conversation starter! Plus I really needed photos taken of my hand so I was in the perfect place to get someone to take pictures of me! Surgery is just an excuse for a photographic series :-)


So, it's been one day since surgery and I'm extremely tired out but luckily not in pain. My fingers are VERY stiff and definitely sore. I can't believe I'm actually able to type, although with this much gauze on my hand I keep accidentally hitting the spacebar. But with the typing I'm starting to feel the stitches a little and that's kind of yucky. Tomorrow I get to cut the gauze off and for a couple weeks I need to wear a band-aid over the stitches. I can't wait to get photos of the stitches! Should be kind of macabre.

POST SURGERY

SURGERY IS SCARY

I'm having surgery in the morning and I'm a little freaked out. They're cutting my right hand open to remove a hard cyst that's just below my middle finger on my palm. I'll have stitches for a couple weeks. Hopefully in time, I'll just have a slight scar, no pain, and my hand will be fully operational. This is the first time I'm having a surgical procedure since I was about 10 years old. I wish my Mom was around to give me hugs and kisses and bring me fried matzo when I get hungry. I'm pretty tough, but I can use all the TLC I can get now. Wish me luck!